DCNS develops with Areva, EDF and CEA a new submarine nuclear reactor project.
Transportable by boat, the Flex Blue mini-reactor would be built in the shipyards of Cherbourg before its immersion in the ocean. © DCNS
Will the future of French nuclear power go through the creation of mini reactors placed at the bottom of the ocean? This is what DCNS thinks that unveiled Wednesday the Flex Blue project. Its principle? A cylindrical reactor of 100 meters long and 15 wide submerged at 100 meters deep and connected to the mainland by an electric cable.
The result of two years of work, Flex Blue was developed by DCNS, which designs the nuclear submarines of the French Navy, in partnership with Areva, EDF and the CEA.
For islands and coastal cities
The imagined submarine reactor will have a power of 50 to 250 megawatts and will be able to supply electricity between 100.000 and a million people. It is intended to supply islands, remote areas and some developing countries.
For the French nuclear industry, Flex Blue would thus constitute an alternative to the nuclear reactor of 3e generation EPR, more powerful, but also more expensive and rejected by the emerging countries.
Transportable by boat, the mini-reactor will be built in the shipyards of Cherbourg, where will also be performed maintenance operations and reloading uranium. At a cost of a few hundred million euros, it has several advantages over a conventional reactor: built in series, faster (2 years), it saves expensive civil works.
"The project holds up"
"The project holds up on paper", judge Bruno Tertrais, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research, interviewed by Europe1.fr. For this nuclear specialist, "there is a market for small reactors for countries which do not have the means to afford conventional power stations". A point of view shared by DCNS, which foresees a potential market of 200 units in the next 20 years for this type of reactor.
There remains the question of the safety of a plant submerged in the ocean. On the subject, specialists want to be reassuring. "The submarine location of the mini-reactors makes it impossible to run any risk of sabotage or terrorist attack," Bruno Tertrais said. As for the risks of maritime pollution, they are eliminated, by the very fact of the submersion of the reactor. "Water is the best barrier against irradiation," we argue at the DCNS.
This enthusiasm is not shared by Greenpeace. According to the environmental association, the project does not present anything concrete both technically and in terms of security. "Proof of their skepticism, the members of Greenpeace believed, during the presentation of the project," in April Fools".
Source: http://www.europe1.fr/France/Flex-Blue- ... ur-380077/
Water the best barrier against radiation? It's a joke? For who? Go and say that to fish and marine life! And for reloading how do we do it? (3 years for an average power station) !! And marine corrosion?
Found by Padawan: https://www.econologie.com/forums/post200309.html#200309
